Easy winter...deer are healthy!

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mainebowhunter
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Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Thu Apr 21, 2016 12:59 pm

Drove around one of my areas tonight, saw 30 deer in one section. For my area, thats a bunch of deer. Good to see. Lots of young deer. 2 easy winters has definitely helped the deer herd. Without hard packed snow, coyotes lost there winter advantage. So the yearlings went into the winter and survived. And mom survived...and all are entering the spring healthy.


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Hawthorne
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby Hawthorne » Thu Apr 21, 2016 1:04 pm

Good to hear! Maybe the racks will be bigger with the earlier green up.

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mainebowhunter
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Thu Apr 21, 2016 1:11 pm

Hawthorne wrote:Good to hear! Maybe the racks will be bigger with the earlier green up.

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How are they looking in MI? Winter must be hard on them especially in Northern MI....
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Hawthorne
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby Hawthorne » Thu Apr 21, 2016 1:22 pm

We had a very mild winter in southern Michigan. One of the mildest I can remember in a ling time. Not sure about northern. The deer are in great shape heading into the growing season

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Dewey
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby Dewey » Thu Apr 21, 2016 1:44 pm

The Winter Severity Index was very low this year in northern WI. Two years in a row will really help the herd......or help feed the wolves......whichever way you want to look at it.

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Mibowfreak
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby Mibowfreak » Thu Apr 21, 2016 1:46 pm

Very mild winter here in Michigan. I have been seeing good numbers of deer out feeding. I also have a few pictures of bucks starting their growing process.

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mainebowhunter
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Thu Apr 21, 2016 1:51 pm

Mibowfreak wrote:Very mild winter here in Michigan. I have been seeing good numbers of deer out feeding. I also have a few pictures of bucks starting their growing process.

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I have been looking at a lot of them pretty hard, trying to locate deer from last season.
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headgear
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby headgear » Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:20 am

Same here in Northern MN, a much needed mild winter. I'm further north than any of the Maine or UP guys so it's been about 8 years of low deer numbers and any signs of recovery have been met with harsh winters and deep snow during that time. Hope this winter was the one to give the population a kick start, still need one or two more winters like this so they can really bounce back.
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Fri Apr 22, 2016 1:37 am

headgear wrote:Same here in Northern MN, a much needed mild winter. I'm further north than any of the Maine or UP guys so it's been about 8 years of low deer numbers and any signs of recovery have been met with harsh winters and deep snow during that time. Hope this winter was the one to give the population a kick start, still need one or two more winters like this so they can really bounce back.


Your way further north than I am. In northern Maine, they are still snowmobiling. Many of the lakes stil have 2' of ice. Very very low deer densities 7hrs north of me. Ice jams are just coming through the rivers this past week.
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headgear
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby headgear » Fri Apr 22, 2016 2:59 am

Funny you should mention that, was scouting last weekend and lots of snow on the ground still and ice on the lakes. That was at least as far north as I hunt, the "southern" areas I hunt are a little more reasonable but still about the same latitude as far northern Maine. Winter can be two months longer up here, very much a different world.
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DaveT1963
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Fri Apr 22, 2016 3:03 am

What is snow? I have heard rumor that stuff exists .......
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headgear
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby headgear » Fri Apr 22, 2016 3:51 am

Come on Dave we all know you have seen Frozen like a million times.

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DaveT1963
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Fri Apr 22, 2016 4:55 am

headgear wrote:Come on Dave we all know you have seen Frozen like a million times.

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lol - with four grandkids you know it :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Bigb
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby Bigb » Fri Apr 22, 2016 1:41 pm

Central Illinois was very light. Heck, the most snow we had was during shotgun season in November. Only a few days where the weather got really cold and we have some pretty good cedar cover and south facing slopes that help. With EHD for two years straight a couple years ago, right now I'm not worried as much about antler size as I am fawn crops. A couple good fawning years will really help. Seems like antlers always grow well no matter what as long as they are eating good April to August.
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Re: Easy winter...deer are healthy!

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Sat Apr 23, 2016 9:09 am

Bigb wrote:Central Illinois was very light. Heck, the most snow we had was during shotgun season in November. Only a few days where the weather got really cold and we have some pretty good cedar cover and south facing slopes that help. With EHD for two years straight a couple years ago, right now I'm not worried as much about antler size as I am fawn crops. A couple good fawning years will really help. Seems like antlers always grow well no matter what as long as they are eating good April to August.


One of my favorite shows is "Bowhunt or Die" on the Roku box. You can see the struggle they had couple years back ...basically EHD hurt there deer population big time. Show is filmed a lot in Illinois. Couple of the guys on there had dead head after dead head of beauty bucks that died. Real shame for sure. Definitely made some slow KS hunting in 2012. 2015 really has recovered where we are seeing the older age class deer again.


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